2010 FTA Bangkok Dinner
including a
donation to the Elephant Hospital
at the National
Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
The following 'Welcoming
Remarks' were delivered by Fred Tibbitts at the 2010 Summer Dinner at Bangkok
Welcoming Remarks at Bangkok Summer 2010
Welcome to the
Third Annual FTA “A Summer Evening in
Bangkok
with Very Special Friends”. We
gather in New York City spring and fall, at Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing,
Bangkok, Mumbai, Shanghai and Hong Kong
to recognize hospitality excellence; in the names of those whom we honor,
provide scholarships at schools of higher hospitality education; and to make
charitable contributions.
An industry is
only as strong as the wisdom, vision, compassion and actions of its leaders;
leaders who define excellence for the benefit of all those who look to them to
know the way to realize their dreams and ambitions and not be left behind.
In the end we are judged not by whom we include, but by whom we exclude.
Great leaders inspire and teach all those who seek to be included,
because serving the least of us is truly the highest calling and the only
measure of service from the heart.
This evening we
come together to recognize hospitality industry Excellence, announce the 2010
scholarships and donate to charity.
This is truly a very special evening for us all and I thank you for joining us,
because as I say at every FTA dinner, YOU are the dinner.
But the deeper
meaning of why we come together is really at the very heart of why the
hospitality industry is so special to those of us who have come to consider it
our calling.
Hospitality is
about service and in particular service excellence.
Service is truly the highest calling.
It is not what we do for ourselves, but what we do for others that is the
measure of our worth to humanity.
And simply because it is the right thing to do: Not for personal recognition.
The truth is that
we are free to dwell at any given moment in as beautiful a place as our hearts
are open to loving others and our willingness to serve them without regard to
our advantage.
Life is a series
of micro steps from the time we arrive to the time we depart and the quality of
our life is but a reflection of the quality of our contribution to the peace and
happiness of others: It is not about pleasing ourselves or collecting “things”:
It is about serving others and after one’s basic, personal needs are met,
allowing what remains of what comes our way to pass through our fingers for the
benefit of those less fortunate.
I ask everyone to
please remember those less fortunate, especially the survivors of the
earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and China.
Their suffering continues as does their need for your compassion.
The Buddhists have a beautiful saying, “One never
knows which comes first, the next morning or the next life”.
I pray that as a result of our coming together this evening for higher
purposes, namely recognizing human excellence, providing much-needed
scholarships for worthy students of limited means and charity for those less
fortunate, that we will all be reminded that people are more important things
and that we all wake-up in the morning in this life, but rededicated to devoting
our lives to serving others, simply because it is the right thing to do; not for
others to praise us or to cater to our ego.
For service with an Open Heart and Right Intention is the foundation of
our hospitality industry: Let it be your mantra from this moment forward, until
it is your time to wake-up in the next life.
Thank you very much. |